Are EV Drivers Ditching Their Electric Cars for Petrol? A Global Perspective

Now that winter is disappearing and holiday traffic is starting to increase again, the same applies to the horror stories of long queues at fast chargers. There is always an uproar about high electricity prices, which would ensure that if you had to rely on public charging stations, your EV would be just as expensive per kilometer as a petrol car.

Put these things together and you get stories of people who leave the EV for what it is and go back to a petrol car, or at least a hybrid. Let’s see if this is a real trend or more of a rumor. Do EV drivers want to trade in their electric car for a petrol car? That just depends on where you ask the question.

More Americans are keeping their EVs, but not many

A study by S&P Global Mobility found that while loyalty to EVs has increased slightly in recent years, it is still not high. For example, half of non-Tesla households would choose a fuel car as their next car (Tesla drivers are slightly more loyal, with 75 percent of them sticking to electric). But don’t forget: that’s in America, where there are fewer charging stations, gasoline is (much) cheaper and households often have more than one car. So some of these new petrol cars may replace others, and only those people will keep the EV.

Do Europeans want to trade in their EV for a petrol car?

In Europe it is different. A survey by Shell among EV drivers in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and Italy showed that 98 percent would stick with an EV as their next car. Also notable: EV drivers are increasingly concerned about their range (from 60 percent in 2022 to half in 2023) and more of them do not consider charging every day necessary (47 face 21 percent). Even in England, which is very difficult in terms of cost, only 4 percent of respondents say they will return to petrol.

And in Holland?

But if you look only at the Netherlands, you will get a different result. The Association of Electric Drivers (VER) and the University of Groningen asked 4,000 Dutch EV drivers what their next car will be after 2025. During this round of questions, there was still talk that EVs would pay the full price of road tax , this has now subsided somewhat. However, the additional fee will increase.

The research showed that 54 percent of EV drivers are considering returning to a petrol or diesel car. So this figure could be slightly lower now, as the tax benefit continues. But it paints a different picture. 39 percent of business drivers are considering changing an electric car for a petrol car.